Slightly cooler today — in the high seventies rather than mid-eighties thus far — with not a cloud in the sky. It’s beautiful, if a little daunting to think that October’s weather is here in the first week of September.
It’s a pattern extending to nighttime conditions now, with lows dropping into the forties — a forty-degree swing between afternoon and the overnight hours. At this time of day, though, it’s all flowering blue skies and fall light.
The wild creatures know, too, that autumn is already here: Several of our summer birds have vanished, undoubtedly already on their migratory journey to warmer climes, and the same seems to be true of nearly all of the butterflies, even the smallest ones. By the same token, the winter birds have begun to arrive: A few days ago, a male downy woodpecker was hard at the work of stashing seeds in the globe willow, and the mountain bluebirds and the piñon jays are here intermittently. The pine siskins have been here for good while already, and I heard a chickadee close by yesterday. I also could have sworn that one of the birds at the feeder yesterday was a Gila woodpecker, but I wasn’t quick enough to get a photo; if indeed it was, I believe that would be a first for us here.
I also noticed over the weekend that an or weaver has taken up residence under the eaves outside the kitchen door. They are at their most productive, and their webs at their most glorious, in October, but it seems even their schedule has been moved up this year. I suspect their dreams are filled with thoughts of winter already.
Ours certainly are; we are grateful for the fall weather, and glad that there will precious little of the oppressive heat left to bedevil us over the next eight months or so. For fall and winter children, even as it increases our workloads while the daylight hours rapidly grow shorter, it simultaneously gives us space to breathe, to think, to be . . . and yes, to dream. The colder months give us the chance for dreams in flower, fully articulated by spring and ready to bring to fruition once more.
Today’s featured masterwork is a tangible embodiment of such gifts, of the web of dreams and the fruits and flowers of their realization. It’s an extraordinary piece, one that began its existence very differently but has now found its true form and shape and spirit — a bit like our rapidly-transforming world now, moving toward a new year. From its description in the Accessories Gallery here on the site:
Dreams In Flower Bolo
Beyond the reaches of a cloud-webbed sky, other planes and spirits hold the power of visions and prophecy, of our dreams in flower in this world. With this new and eminently traditional bolo, Wings honors petals and sky and the web that filters our dreams, allowing them all the power and potential and possibility of fulfillment for a better world. The work is built around an extraordinary concha that found its first form in one of Wings’s old concha belts, one that has remained permanently in his personal collection. It’s an outsized classic oval concha, deeply scored, stamped, and scalloped with petal-like edges entirely freehand, with three nested ovals of stampwork layered inside three clean, evenly scored border ovals. The scored loops create a slight upward gradient, and the center is domed by hand, repoussé-fashion, to transform a flat heavy oval of sterling silver into a perfectly three-dimensional concha. Atop the center, a giant freeform cabochon of ultra-high-grade Cloud Mountain turquoise from China’s Hubei District, a gorgeous hard deep blue with an inky blue-black matrix of fine, tight spiderwebbing. This spectacular stone is set into a similarly finely serrated saw-toothed bezel and edged with twisted silver, the whole elevated slightly above the concha at the center via a short sterling silver base. The concha is strung on tightly-woven black leather cord, cut long to fit nearly any wearer’s neck, ending in serrated sterling silver tips that terminate in ridged saucer beads above a tiny round bead. Bolo is 3.75″ long by 3″ across at the widest point; cabochon is 2″ long by 1.5″ across at the widest point; bolo tips are 2-1/8″ long by 1/2″ across at the widest point (bead); and the bolo cord, including tips, is 58″ long total (all dimensions approximate). Other views shown above, below, and the link.
Sterling silver; ultra-high-grade Cloud Mountain blue spiderweb turquoise; braided black leather
$2,500 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This image has not rendered true to color; the light is all wrong for that. But I wanted to show the beauty of the piece with the bolo strands flowing like braided rivers tipped in silver, like the winding path of visions and dreams and prophecy too. For accurate representation of the shades of the Florentine silver, and of that finely webbed stone, one need only scroll up to the two previous images, which render exceedingly true to life.
True, too, to our nighttime skies, clear deep blue lined by their own dark webwork of high, fine clouds, backlit by a flowering silvery light from the stars and a giant waning moon.
The beauty of this season, in the daylight hours or in the dark, reminds me just how blessed we are to have it still. After all, in an era of climate collapse, such gifts are no sure thing anymore. Looking out the window now, as a crow lands on a branch amid the aspen’s turning leaves, my eye is drawn beyond it to the fading green of Pueblo Peak, its own aspen line that will surely be gold very soon.
After that? With any luck, a snowline to follow. Modest dreams, but dreams all the same, in a world of flowering blue skies and fall light.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2023; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
